Genkos Adea

written by Christopher Caldwell Alright, Trekkies, let's boldly go where many polls have gone before... but with a new twist! We're diving into the expanding universe of "new" Star Trek. For the purposes of this discussion, let's define "new" as the shows launched since 2017, beginning with Star Trek: Discovery. We've seen a starship crew discover the far future, animated antics on the lower decks, the return of one of the most beloved Captains in Star Trek History, a ragtag crew of young misfits and even a return to classic episodic storytelling on the ship that launched it all! Love them or hate them, each series offers a unique flavour and explores different aspects of the Star Trek universe. So, in your opinion which one takes the top spot? Make sure to cast your vote and, most importantly, share your reasoning in the comments! What is it that makes your chosen show the best? Is it the characters, the ships, the storylines, the connection to Trek lore, or something else entirely? Let the debate begin!

Written by Christopher Caldwell (although I take full responsibility for the awful title) Since Star Trek: The Next Generation aired over 37 years ago, the show’s characters have achieved a level of cultural recognition that transcends the realm of science fiction fandom. The show's ensemble cast expanded on the progressive vision of the original series and in doing so helped to pave the way for greater diversity and inclusivity in entertainment and beyond, inspiring not just the next generation, but all those that would follow. As Star Trek fans we’ve witnessed the crew of the Enterprise D (and later E) utilising diplomacy, science, technology and guile in order to complete a multitude of missions; they’ve boldly gone where no one has gone before, expanding our understanding of the universe, defending us from great evil and even saving the galaxy itself. But their next mission will be something that we’ve never seen before, festive gift-giving. Our question this month, asks you to answer the question of which main character from The Next Generation would be the best give-giver and why do you think so? Time to make it snow!

written by Christopher Caldwell The Star Trek universe has unlimited potential for storytelling. Even with The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager all taking place within the same time period each show had its own unique premise but thanks to shows like Enterprise (later Star Trek: Enterprise) and Star Trek: Discovery, the Star Trek timeline has expanded beyond the 23rd and 24th centuries explored in the TOS and TNG eras, now featuring the 22nd century and, if including the ‘Short Trek’ episode ‘Calypso’, the 43rd century respectively. We know that the Section 31 TV movie is set during ‘The Lost Era’ (the time between the original Star Trek movies and The Next Generation), there’s been a lot of talk of the next Star Trek cinematic release being a prequel and there are multiple shows in the works including Starfleet Academy which takes place in the 32nd century as well as the Tawny Newsome penned live action comedy, potentially in the vein of Parks & Recreation, that is believed to take place on the planet Risa in the 25th century. With the Star Trek canon increasing to expand with new shows and movies, we’d love to ask you what era you would want the next Star Trek show or movie to take place and why? Do you want to stick with something familiar or go where no one has boldly gone before?

I'm here! "And AIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII will always hate yooooooooooooooooooou"

Now we’re on the other side of the Frontier Day blockbuster (well done to everyone who participated, it was a nail-biter!) we thought we’d throw up an interesting query to all of you… Who do you think is the biggest threat to peace in the galaxy? We’ll start off with the two most obvious answers - the Borg and the Changelings. As the architects of the Frontier Day disaster, they were responsible for the huge loss of life experienced across Starfleet on that day, as well as the sudden assimilation of every officer under the age of 30. But apart from that, both have been huge threats even before they joined forces. The Borg have posed a legitimate existential threat to life in the Alpha Quadrant ever since Q zapped Picard halfway across the galaxy to meet them, and they only became more credible as a danger at the Battle of Wolf 359 and in their encounters with Janeway. Ruthless and without feeling, the Borg are legitimately terrifying. The Changelings were responsible for the Dominion War, the largest and most bloody conflict in recent memory, scars of which still crisscross the galaxy. Whether you lived on occupied Betazed or fought them at Deep Space Nine, nobody can forget the threat of not truly knowing who your friends were coupled with the relentless march of the Jem’hadar. The Lattice Alliance, a xenophobic alliance of Tholians and Sheliak have pooled their technology to use weapons based on sencha radiation, using crystalline technology. This has allowed them to focus and amplify the effects of the radiation, creating cannons and blast weapons of a destructive power seldom seen before. The USS Ronin first encountered sencha radiation in 2400 and barely escaped the conflict in one piece, and the Alliance continues to menace the quadrant to this day. Also, we have the Orion Syndicate - possibly more insidious than the others in that they’re not actively engaged in battle with the Federation, but their methods can be brutal and barbaric. Skin colour to dye for, though! Or do you have another suggestion? Let us know in the comments!

Welcome!

I did email you, maybe it went to spam! Are you both on Discord? I'll invite you to the channel

Well hello there! It’s been a while since we’ve run a Poll of the Month, and we thought our 30th Anniversary month would be a fantastic time to come back from the dead (a Star Trek speciality). A huge thank you to @Gogigobo Fairhug for giving me the nudge needed to get this ship back online. Soooooo, with it being our thirtieth anniversary (!) and also the month of our beloved awards ceremony, we thought we’d ask you an interesting question about our avatars. Obviously at this time of year, we get our characters all dressed up in their finest black tie/prom dress/weird outfit that the actor wore to the Met Gala in 2017… you know who you are. And this raised an interesting little question for me this month. How did you select your avatar for Starbase118? I myself started off using my own image for Genkos (hugely embarrassing I know, but I was young…ish) and then moved to the beautifully angular Ben Whishaw when I got more of a handle both on simming and on the character of Genkos. I’ve also made more of an effort to try and include POC in my PNPC characters list (okay, I have three, but it’s a start!). So that brings me to the question of the week - how do you select the actors/models/random strangers that you’ve picked for your avatars? Do you develop the character and then think “who do I know who plays characters like that?” or do you think of an actor that exists and think “wow, they would be fun to play as - they normally play ineffable grumps”? It’s a bit of a chicken and an egg question, but we are interested to know! Or do you do something completely different - let us know what you do in the comments below!

I don't remember saying this, but it does sound like something I'd say. As I often say, the day I taught you in the Academy was the greatest day of your life, for me - it was a Tuesday.

Excuse me? ::blinks::

I wanted to showcase this fantastic sim from @Jovenan. She played Tevet Elain as a childhood friend of Genkos in the last leave, then we encountered a youthful version of the character thanks to time-hopping shenanigans. And now we're back in the present, having changed the past - and Jovenan came right out the gate with this compelling antagonist. Five stars.

@Doz Finch Hysterical response

I feel awful about this @Nolen Hobart - but I will point out that your cadet cruise might well have been the most important day of your life. For me, it was a Tuesday.

@Jovenan deserves all the points for this excellent callback.

Genkos Adea checking in! "Prepare for trouble! And make it double!"

@Yalu You are a monster.

@Yalu - I had to pause my reading because of you

I've been a fan of @LuxaLorana since she came aboard the Artemis, but this is a really lovely "nothing" sim. My act three opener for our current mission was intended to communicate time and boredom, and Olivia has seized upon that and taken it to wonderful depths. I particularly like the note on Genkos' drumming fingers and how she has built upon it beautifully. Keep up the good work!

This month’s poll celebrates the bottle show, a Star Trek production hallmark since the franchise’s earliest days. The term “bottle show” refers to an episode produced with a limited budget and a self-contained storyline. Such episodes are designed to minimize production costs by using existing sets and not involving major guest stars. Bottle shows were prevalent from The Original Series through Enterprise. Producers purposely sprinkled these budget-conscious episodes throughout each season to free up dollars for more expensive episodes, such as those featuring heavy special effects, location filming, new sets, or big-name guest stars. Bottle shows have largely gone the way of the dodo since the franchise returned to television in 2017. Shorter seasons mean less need to pad them out with low-budget episodes. In addition, serialized storytelling makes it harder to plop one-off episodes mid-season without disrupting the main plot. In the case of the animated series, the entire season is written before the actors are even brought into the recording studio, and there are no sets to build, rendering bottle shows obsolete. A well-done bottle show serves strong storytelling and character study instead of flashy visual effects. When done poorly, however, a bottle show feels like pointless filler, shoehorned into a Trek season to meet the 26-episode requirement in the cheapest way possible. Some of the most disappointing Trek episodes, including “Shades of Gray” (TNG), “Elogium” (VOY), and “A Night In Sickbay” (ENT), were conceived as bottle shows. Unfortunately, this means the term has developed an undeserved reputation as a euphemism for bad. Despite their limitations, some of the most memorable moments in Star Trek have come from bottle shows. The tight focus of the episode forces the writers and actors to get creative with dialogue and character interactions. Bottle shows are an opportunity for the cast to showcase their acting skills and for fans to learn more about their favorite characters. We have bottle shows to thank for Jean-Luc Picard’s chilling monologue that begins, “With the first link, the chain is forged…,” and Beverly Crusher’s meme-able moment, “If there's nothing wrong with me, maybe there's something wrong with the universe.” Even though they’re a mixed bag, bottle shows are essential to the Star Trek legacy. They offer an opportunity to tell stories that might not otherwise be told. They force the writers to think creatively and the actors to flex their muscles. They can also be a refreshing chance to have some fun and make an episode that is pure entertainment, free from the constraints of the series’ larger narrative.

Oh you're far too kind! It has been a fabulous mission and we're having a rousing finale

Attribution: Yogan Yalu (I don't want my name anywhere near this slander, and on her birthday! - Genkos Adea) In The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway, “edited” by Una McCormack, the commanding officer of the USS Voyager writes of her years in the Delta Quadrant: Reflecting back now on these cases where I had to make ethical decisions, all I can say is that I did the best that I could under the circumstances… I was out on a limb—a Starfleet captain without Starfleet. I could not summon up help or stop off at a starbase for extra supplies. I could not, for most of the time, even ask for advice on the decisions I had to make. (p. 151) The Autobiography devotes five chapters to the Delta Quadrant. It expands upon many small details from the series and retells them from Janeway’s perspective. For example, she handpicked her chief medical officer, a longtime friend and former crewmate, who was then killed on Voyager’s first day in the Delta Quadrant. She writes, “I have never stopped regretting asking him to come aboard Voyager. He was a fine doctor, a good friend, and his death is one of the biggest regrets of my life.” (p. 181) The book is also an apologia, in which Janeway defends her conduct and explains the reasoning behind her many questionable command decisions. There are examples of Janeway’s erratic, ill-considered, or simply perplexing decisions throughout Voyager’s run—isolating herself from her crew as they traversed the Void (“Night”), agreeing to sacrifice the Equinox and its crew in exchange for a reprieve from attacks (“Equinox”), and attempting to apprehend two Ferengi con men rather than transit a wormhole to the Alpha Quadrant (“False Profits”) are just a few honourable mentions. This poll, however, will focus on Janeway's greatest hits. Stranding Voyager in the Delta Quadrant Without our help, [the Ocampa’s] move toward self-determination would have been stopped before it had the chance. The Kazon were waiting to move in and seize the array, whatever it might cost the Ocampa. And I couldn’t let that happen. (p. 119) Prime Directive issues aside, Janeway’s decision to protect the innocent Ocampa also smacks of the same paternalism for which she criticised the Caretaker. Killing Tuvix The Doctor would not perform the procedure, and therefore I took it upon myself. Tuvix died, and Tuvok and Neelix lived… Thinking about what I might have done differently will continue to haunt me for the rest of my life. (pp. 132, 180) The classic Trolley Problem has no correct answer. However, the fact that Janeway refers to Tuvix having “died” at her hand suggests she believes deep down that she committed a wrong. Allying with the Borg against Species 8472 What the hell could destroy fifteen Borg cubes? This, we learned, after sending an away team to one of the cubes, was Species 8472, which, as we discovered from the Borg logs, had defeated them many times before. (p. 139) Janeway’s decision to ally with the Federation’s greatest existential threat against a vastly superior enemy—instead of the other way around—feels like a short-sighted tactical error. Promoting everyone but Harry Kim My last act as captain of Voyager was to give him a long overdue promotion to lieutenant. I would have skipped a couple of ranks if I’d been able: Harry surely deserved it. (His speed of promotion since has made up for it, however.) (p. 182) The argument that the command structure on Voyager was too fragile to allow Harry’s promotion just doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. Chakotay and Torres received field commissions. Tuvok and Paris were promoted, the latter after having been demoted. Even Ayala managed to outrank Harry Kim. Changing history to bring Voyager home early The admiral complicated matters greatly by revealing details of her future to me: twenty-three years in the Delta Quadrant (dear god, the prospect…!), the deaths of Seven of Nine and twenty-two others, and the horrible thought of seeing my friend Tuvok’s faculties decline… (b. 175) Captain Janeway is steadfast against altering the timeline until Admiral Janeway reveals the untimely fates of those closest to her: Seven, Tuvok, and Chakotay. Changing the future because things didn’t pan out for you seems like a subject that would have been covered at the Academy.

So last week we had the finale of series three of Star Trek: Picard, which is confirmed as being the last series of the reunion show. So I guess the question we could ask is… which season was your favourite? A general warning that although I will not spoil the ending of S3, if you haven’t seen Picard, this might be one to avoid. Season One of Picard was all about ex-Borg, Romulans and synthetic life. We had the return (from the dead) of everyone’s favourite android, Data. The series dived deeply into his relationship with Picard, and how his death at the end of Nemesis had affected our favourite “French” captain for the next thirty years. It also included returning appearances from Seven of Nine, Bruce Maddox and an always popular Soong relation. Season Two of Picard was very Q-focused, dealing with time travel and the Borg (not former ones this time) - and ended with a rather beautiful tribute to that conniving trial master of humanity. It also included returning appearances from Guinan (both Goldberg, and a wonderful impersonation by Ito Aghayere), everyone’s favourite Punk on the Bus and an always popular Soong relation. Season Three of Picard was all about legacy and the “next” generation, bringing back everyone and their mother as returning characters, before pivoting, for the third time, to the Borg… again. It also included returning appearances from Tuvok, Ro Laren and an always popular Soong relation. So there are three seasons to choose from, each exploring an aspect of the Next Generation in an interesting deep dive. But which was your favourite? After you've chosen, please do drop us your reasonings in the comments below!

I absolutely loved reading this - our normally delightfully cheerful CEO getting to tear things up. And a Blondie reference, what's not to love? @Hallia Yellir, great work as always!

Wilkommen, bienvenue, welcome!

@Jovenan being her sassy self